Empathy Is Conditional

Coming from the US-Mexico Borderland I find doing this work exhausting when major segments of the population lack any empathy towards migrants or others seeking asylum or refuge. Conversations surrounding migration are viewed exclusively through lenses of race at home in the U.S. Buzzwords like 'hordes' and 'masses' are used to describe groups of asylum seekers approaching our southern border. Our seeming inability as a society to look past these lenses and find empathy for people fleeing from danger is constantly disappointing. Some part of me hoped it would be different here but from day one, my hopes were dashed. After talking to two different social workers about their experiences and the process of arriving in Germany and applying for asylum the disparities between the treatment of different groups was clear. Outside of the process itself, we learned that the treatment of refugees varies dramatically depending on where they came from and what they look like. Ukrainians, although not universal, received residency status and all the perks and legal protections in a fast tracked fashion. Simultaneously, we sat in on sessions with men from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and if I am remembering correctly, Nigeria who have been here for 7+ years waiting in a decision regarding their asylee status. In Germany, before you recieve legal asylum status, you get what is colloquially known as a 'license to wait'. This is what these men have; they have been waiting for upwards of seven years for an answer. I feared that this would be the case as when the war first started in Ukraine, many countries across Europe offered immediate residency status, most notably Poland who offered three years immediately. Meanwhile thousands of people of color are denied these same protections and routinely told to go back to where they came from and fix their country. I am not here to be the American that points fingers and tries to deflect eyes from my own countries deeply flawed and bloody past when it comes to race relations. I will however call out blatant racism when I see it. The reek of racism and anti-semitism is alive and well on this continent and to pretend it is not is a dangerous path that can go terribly wrong. Something I was brutually reminded of when walking through a building with a gas chamber with fake shower heads and a room of three ovens south of the city in Dachau.